Monday, October 13, 2008

Busy Day for Zag News

- Gonzaga recruit, Brandon Davies, verbally committed to BYU last night. This is not surprising news, as Davies attends Provo high school, which is across the street from the BYU campus. Davies did take an official visit to GU on September 26-28, but even at that point, it seemed there was little chance of Davies leaving the state of Utah for school. Davies will play two years at BYU, after which he will take his Mormon mission.

-I'm not going to pretend to understand the recruitment of Devonte Elliott. It seemed like Elliott was well on his way to becoming a Zag, as he was scheduled to visit during the first week of October. However, that visit was abruptly cancelled, and it appears that Elliott and GU may have parted ways. Elliott will not be attending Kraziness in the Kennel this weekend, and it seems that Coach Few and the rest of the staff have cooled on Elliott. This is a disappointing development for those fans like myself who marvelled over the incredible potential Elliott seems to possess. My guess is that Elliott ends up at Nevada, which he visited this past weekend, or George Washington.

- One recruit who will be attending Kraziness in the Kennel is Brett Kingma. Kingma, a member of the class of 2011, is a star PG from Mill Creek, Washington. Kingma sounds like the ideal recruit for Mark Few, as he is self-confessed gym rat and comes from a family of basketball players. From what I have read about Kingma, his game sounds very similar to Dan Dickau, who was an All-American at Gonzaga. In fact, Kingma scored 32 points in his first game for the Jackson high school basketball team. Despite his gaudy scoring numbers, Kingma is very smart with the ball, and has all the intangibles to be a high-level point guard.

Update: Austin Daye didn't tear his ACL. That was originally the fear when Daye got hurt in July in Akron. Had that occurred, the Zags would surely have slid this season. But Daye is back and so is Jeremy Pargo at the point. So, too, are Josh Heytvelt in the middle and Matt Bouldin and Steven Gray making shots on the wings. The Zags are also hungrier after being stunned by Davidson in the first round of the NCAAs.

Concern: Daye and Heytvelt are back, but both are coming off summer injuries, so durability will be an issue.

Nonconference highlights: The Zags have always played games worth watching. Gonzaga plays in the loaded Old Spice Classic in Orlando; Connecticut in Seattle; Arizona in Phoenix; Tennessee in Knoxville; Washington State in Pullman; and an in-WCC game against Memphis in Spokane."

TKR's Take: Katz doesn't really provide GU fans with anything they didn't know before. Obviously durability will be an issue, but I think it is clear that if this team can stay healthy, then we will be watching the best team GU has ever had. What I found more interesting about Katz's top 25, was the inclusion of St.Mary's. If the Gaels and USD can live up to their preseason hype, then the WCC will not have such a negative effect on GU's RPI. This could have a huge impact on the Zags receiving the coveted 1 or 2 seed in the west bracket.